The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Tressell's novel is about survival on the underside of the Edwardian Twilight, about exploitative employment when the only safety nets are charity, workhouse, and grave. Following the fortunes of a group of painters and decorators and their families, and the attempts to rouse their political
will by the Socialist visionary Frank Owen, the book is both a highly entertaining story and a passionate appeal for a fairer way of life. It asks questions that are still being asked today: why do your wages bear no relation to the value of your work? Why do fat cats get richer when you don't?
Tressell's answers are "The Great Money Trick" and the "philanthropy" of an unenlightened workforce, who give away their rights and aspirations to a decent life so freely.
Intellectually enlightening, deeply moving and gloriously funny (complete with exploding clergyman), The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a book that changes lives.
From the Publisher
'The first great English novel about the class war, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is spiked, witty, humorous, instructive and full of excitement, harmony and pathos.' - ALAN SILLITOE
'Some books seem to batter their way to immortality against all the odds, by sheer brute artistic strength, and high up in this curious and honourable company must be counted The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Robert Tressell's unfailing humour mixes with an unfailing rage and the two together make a truly Swiftian impact.' - MICHAEL FOOT, Evening Standard
'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a wonderful book. Its wonder comes from the raciness of its story and the passionate ethics that emerge.' - City Limits
'Robert Tressell has complete familiarity with the idiom of his characters. His language is bizarre, vital, highly inventive and precisely heard - it is a complete and living archaeology of the speech of a particular human group. A brilliant and very funny book.' - Spectator
'A torch to pass from generation to generation.' TONY BENN
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics),Robert Tressell,Peter Miles,Oxford University Press, USA,0192804537,Capitalism,Classics,English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,Fiction,Literary,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Literature: Classics,Social classes,Socialists,Working class,Fiction / Classics,Literature/English | British Literature | 20th C,Modern fiction
Books Info:
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